Piles
of papers and notebooks slowly collecting a layer of grey particles. A thousand
words hidden as a million zeros and ones stashed in a forgotten part of a hard
drive. Every writer has abandoned projects. Sometimes it’s that you realise you
don’t like the piece any more or that you just can’t figure out how the big
plot points come together. Other times it’s that you love the project so much
that you don’t want it to end or that you’ve gotten so busy that you don’t
think you can justify spending time writing. There are so many types of works
that are left behind.

The What Was I
Thinking

These
are the stories that leave you wondering if you were high on painkillers or
writing after being awake for over 24 hours. The ones that don’t make any sense
or are so bizarre that they catch you off guard. The ones that cause you to sit
in stunned shock or laugh until you cry because the plot is just so strange or
poorly tossed together. You set it aside after a while, thinking that you might
be able to salvage it eventually. But years later, you end up finding it and
having another session of crying laughter or shocked confusion.

Most
of the projects that I find after abandoning them are this type. I start
writing or plotting with just a character and a specific scene in mind, and
then try to form the rest of the book or short story around it. And golly, does
it lead to some interesting finds. One of which being a book about a girl who
lived in a retainment camp in the future and managed to escape because of a
promise she made to a friend. That promise? To save a pet frog that hadn’t been
seen for over ten years. Somehow this escape led to the revolution needed in
that country. Excuse me as I go ask my 13-year-old self what I was thinking.

The Does It Have to
End

These
are the types of projects that you set aside because you just aren’t quite
ready to finish them yet. And then you just wait. And wait. And wait. And
you’re still waiting, years later. You enjoy the characters too much. You love
the setting. You smile when you think about the plot. But you still don’t
finish it.

If
you wait too long, this might turn into a What Was I Thinking. The plot becomes
confused in your mind, and something you once love then becomes dreaded or
comical. Be wary of setting works that you love aside. If you do, you may not
ever finish them.

The Can This Be Over

These
are the writings that you’ve just worked on so hard for so long that your brain
can barely function when you need to think about it. It’s the kind that you
were once excited about, and you became determined to finish it. Then the
excitement faded, but the determination stayed. At least for a little while.

You
eventually set it aside because you just can’t think about it anymore. And for
years, you leave it because of the negative memories tied to trying to write it
and getting bored, tired, frustrated, or even angry. So instead of finishing
it, you just ignore it, hoping it will finish itself.

The I Did This

These
are the books that you look back on as you are writing with pride and slight
awed confusion. You love how they are turning out and want to keep writing. But
you’re so amazed with what you have written and aren’t certain if you can
continue with such wonderful writing or plot or characters that you slowly lose
confidence, even though the evidence that you can write and think like that is
directly in front of your eyes. So as you lose confidence, you slowly stop
writing. Making sure that the piece remains un-marred.

However,
you still get excited when you think about the plot or the writing. You dwell
on the characters and the scenes. You daydream about the settings. You live in
the story a little bit still, even though you aren’t working on it. Go ahead.
Pick it up. Keep writing. You can do it.

The I Completely
Forgot

These
are the collections of words and thoughts that you enjoy writing and can’t wait
to finish. But as you keep writing, you realise that you can’t remember where
the book was going or who the characters are or what the plot was. The pieces
just don’t fit together. Your memories and thoughts about the project are just
out of your grasp, and you start to get tired of trying to reach them. So you
put it away to try and figure it out another day.

But
then you just don’t get it out again. You think about it on occasion trying to
remember tiny pieces, but they still elude your grasp.

But
there are ways that you can pick these pieces back up and recreate them or
finish them, whatever type of abandoned project it is.

Here
are some of my reasons why you should pick up your old and forgotten writings
and how you can use them or finish them.

Rereading your work
can show you how much your style and writing have changed.

If
you’re anything like me, your style and writing change from project to project
and even from scene to scene. Looking back on things that I wrote growing up to
the things I wrote in college, or even the things that I wrote as recently as
earlier this year, I see a huge difference in my wording and tone. I find it
very refreshing and even comical or exciting to reread my past works and see
how much I’ve changed. Sometimes I even find a style that I want to return to.
I want to dip my feet back in that pond and feel the cool reviving water swirl
around my feet. And then I want to take off, leaving it’s trail behind me as my
wet footsteps leave words and stories in my wake.

You can find amazing
quotes that you want to use in different projects.

Far
more often, I find quotes that I hate rather than find ones that I love.
However, whenever I stumble across a quote that I enjoy in a project I just
plain don’t want to use or finish anymore, I think of the projects that I do
want to finish and try to find a place for them there. Sometimes these little
phrases even spark something entirely new, and I form a brand new story or poem
around the once-forgotten words. Perhaps the same will take place for you.

You might like the
premise or idea even if you don’t like the writing.

Rereading
works that I left by the wayside has led to this discovery more times than I
care to admit. I have so many short story and novel ideas or even entire plots
figured out from projects that I had started but didn’t truly enjoy at the
time. Most of the time, when I’m no longer enjoying a project, you can easily
tell in my writing. The writing becomes sloppy and difficult to understand or
just very dull and bland. So I scrap all the writing, but I keep the plot or
the premise and save it. I tuck them safely in folder to ensure I don’t lose
them. Eventually, I dig them out and start writing. And I enjoy them much more
than before.

What
type of abandoned project is the most common one for you to find in your
writing folders? How often do you look back over your old writings? Let us know
in the comments below!

Also,
thank you so much Azelyn for letting me be a part of Word Storm!

***

Meet the Author

Faith René Boggus is a linguist obsessed with European culture, particularly
when it comes to France and England. She likes to collect mugs, create art,
experiment with words, and drink tea. You can read more about her and her
stories on her blog, Abogguslife.